Hip Hop goes 'Platinum' on UPN

Sofia Coppola came up with the idea for a television series based in the world of hip-hop music, executive producer Robert Greenblatt said.

"Her husband, Spike Jonze, started his career as a video music director," Greenblatt said, "and he and she have been around the hip-hop and (other) music worlds for years. She started telling us stories about funny things that had happened, about the eccentricities of some of the personalities and the wealth -- and it seemed like a fun backdrop for a show."

Coppola teamed with writer-producer John Ridley to create Platinum, which premieres at 8 p.m. April 14 on UPN.

The midseason series will return on Tuesday at 8 p.m., its regular time slot, for a total of six episodes into May.

Platinum will focus on a family in the hip-hop music business that's centered on two different brothers who have had rags-to-riches success after building their own label, Sweetback Entertainment. Jason George and Sticky Fingaz play brothers Jackson and Grady Rhames.

"There will be a lot of relatable issues going on within the family -- between the brothers, and husbands and wives," said Greenblatt, whose company also produces One on One on UPN and Six Feet Under on HBO.

"And there will be issues within the hip-hop music business, where you have larger-than-life characters in a very fun and kind of crazy world," he said.

The brothers are struggling to keep their company alive in a world run by huge conglomerates, he said.

"It's not unlike Six Feet Under," Greenblatt said. "The family drama could exist anywhere. It just so happens that these characters work and live in the music business."

The show "will blur the edges between the real hip-hop world and our fictional world," said Greenblatt, noting that some of the actors playing hip-hop artists in the series are hip-hop artists in real life.

The series is aimed at the 18-to-34-year old audience, he said, "and a lot of these viewers watch MTV, so we're trying to incorporate that feeling into the show."

The show also will air on MTV about a week after it is on UPN, he said. Kevin Bray, who has directed more than 100 music videos and worked with Jonze, is a director-producer for the series. Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia's father, is among the executive producers.